New models for democratic engagement in the application of space technology for sustainable development Professor Danielle Wood Massachusetts Institute of Technology, [email protected] Session: “Democratic Discontent, Technocratic Agendas, and Emerging Alternatives” Abstract The space sector is experiencing what appear to be contradictory trends regarding the role of democratic engagement and the relationship between the state, experts, commercial firms and society. On one hand, the role of the public sector continues to be central to provide funding and innovation that harness satellite technology and space-related research to support public services. Governments around the world currently use space technology to enable public services such as weather forecasting, disaster response, agricultural monitoring and water resource management. Technology from space, including satellite earth observation, communications and positioning services, has the potential support important societal objectives, such as meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. On the other hand, the role of the private sector in the space sector is changing as satellites and launch technology mature. Firms are experimenting with new business models that depend less on direct government investment to operate large constellations of satellites for earth observation or communication services. In the United States, federal agencies such as NASA and NOAA are exploring new ways to buy data services from commercial firms in additional contracting for the building of full satellite systems owned by the government. Around the world, non-traditional countries are creating new domestic satellite programs. Countries on every continent have invested in government-led projects to buy or build satellites for earth observation and communication. The increase in space-fairing nations leads to new international space policy questions that will help ensure that the orbital environment remains free of debris and safe for all to operate. New democratic models will be needed to ensure that innovation, public services and global access are assured in the space sector. New space-fairing nations are transitioning to increased activity in space. They need to invite democratic participation in setting their national space strategy and policy, but further work is needed to engage these populations. Technology from space has the potential to support democratic engagement by providing communication services to remote areas and by providing objective data about environmental management. Further research is needed to understand whether the increased commercial role in satellite projects and the increase in space-fairing nations is helping citizens access technology benefits and supporting sustainable development. 1) Space Technology is a Symbol of Power and Democratic Engagement The physical and symbolic components of space activity exist in a paradoxical reality that at once represents centralized and exclusive power while at the same time allowing distributed and inclusive democratic engagement. In the discussion that follows, democratic engagement in the context of space technology is defined as the ability of government agencies, members of the public and commercial companies to access the benefits of space technology that is publicly funded and to participate in creating new innovations based on this technology. Beyond this minimal role, an even higher level of democratic engagement would involve public input to define 1 future strategic investment in space programs and influence in the international space governance process. Early in the era of space exploration, starting in the 1950s, space represented the achievements of elite scientists, engineers and government leaders who defied the current understanding of physics to achieve what seemed to be impossible by orbiting spacecraft, satellites and humans around the earth (McDougall 1985). In the context of the Cold War, space achievements were literally used to convince the watching global audience that capitalism or communism could achieve superior historic outcomes (Launius 1997). Even as governments pursued self-serving space programs that were designed with little democratic engagement, the public paradoxically created a role in the space era because of the great interest that new space milestones generated. Millions of people went to watch space launches in person, watched closely the new of early human space flight on the news and celebrated major technological milestones. Through this enthusiasm, the public inserted itself as a figure with power in the progression of international space activity. Organizations such as NASA started to include public outreach and engagement with historians and artists as formal parts of their budgets and programmatic activities (Launius, Ulrich and Glenn 1998) Near Kennedy Space Center, when there are launches, traffic patterns change drastically and the law enforcement system has to respond to thousands of cars parked alongside the road of otherwise rural coastal neighborhoods near Titusville, Florida. The public makes itself felt as a stakeholder in major space achievements pursued by governments. During the early space era, popular culture responded by using space as an analogy for the future that a successful society could create. Notably, Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, the Original Series, presented a future in which people from a variety of backgrounds worked together as a highly effective team to make scientific discoveries, engage in complex diplomacy and survive existential crises. In addition to aliens from beyond earth, the crew of the Original Series included people in the 24th Century that seemed to descent from the countries of the Soviet Union, Scotland, Kenya and the United States in the 20th Century. Nichelle Nichols made history by being one of the first black women to depict a character with leadership and advanced technical skills as she played Lt. Uhura (Pounds 1999). Through more recent historical research and population interpretations of the Hidden Figures movie, it is now clearer that black women such as Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughn were working as computer scientists and advanced mathematicians within NASA when Nichelle Nichols debuted in Star Trek (Shetterly 2017). These and other examples show the paradox that space is at once the province of centralized decision making by elites within the government while at the same time being a domain in which public perception and participation is highly influential. Space technology, especially satellites that provide public services in the areas of earth observation, communication, positioning and scientific measurement, have a paradoxical, symbolic power to represent both centralized power held by elite governments and access to free services that are used innovatively by the general public and commercial companies. In the context of the United States, for example, the government agencies of NASA and the US Geological Survey operate the long-term series of satellites for earth observation called LandSat. After several experiments of public and private operational models, the current approach for data distribution is that the government provides all LandSat data to the public freely (Borowitz 2017). Through 2 Google’s Earth Engine, these LandSat data set is available on a cloud-based platform that increases ease of use for those who are not familiar with converting satellite-based earth observation data into maps within Geographic Information Systems. As commercial companies such as Planet add new earth observation data to the global marketplace at higher spatial resolution (3 meters) and temporal frequency (daily rather than weekly), they begin by using the LandSat data set as a benchmark that provides the desired frequency bands. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency operates the Sentinel series of satellites which provides free global access to data that is comparable to LandSat as well as higher resolution data in which each pixel is 10 meters. In the area of satellite-positioning, the governments of the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation and China each operate Global Navigation Satellite Systems. These systems have the potential to be used by individuals from countries around the world to provide information about their location and a precise measurement of time that can be applied in a variety of applications including mapping, transportation, financial transactions and precision agriculture. In most cases, members of the public and private sector organizations can use the signals from these government positioning satellites freely. In the area of satellite communication, countries such as India operate government-owned satellites with the express purpose of providing communication services to support education and medicine in rural areas. The global satellite communication market is dominated mainly by large, multinational companies that achieve profit by providing services to support broadcast television, radio, internet and phone services. While satellite communications greatly increase access to television, radio and internet services, the prices remain high for rural users in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia who are typically disconnected. In each of the domains discussed above, there is simultaneously a strong government agency making decisions without a high level of democratic engagement as well as a functional increase in access to important services